Creating Custom Content to Grow Your Business

Content is King! The Internet was created for the publication and dissemination of information — content. And content is still the major reason that people use the Internet. Creating custom content is the best way to maintain your online presence month after month.

It is vital that you place original content about your product or service on your website. The search engines will find you if you place good content on your site. When people are planning to buy a product or service, they first go online to do research and inform themselves about their intended purchase. If you are a plumbing company, place articles on your website about do-it-yourself plumbing tips for your customers – how to unclog a toilet, how to troubleshoot and fix a kitchen garbage disposal, and so on. If you’re an electrician, show your visitors how to test circuit breakers, replace fuses etc. Inform your readers. Creating custom content for your customers allows you to prove your expertise. Show them you are an expert in your field – you are the most qualified and experienced plumber, electrician, garage door installer, or whatever service you provide.

Nothing brings traffic to a website like fresh, original, informative relevant content. If you can’t write, hire a writer to work with you to create compelling content. Or visit article sites like Helium and arrange to publish content from their site. Or hire an agency – if you can afford it.

There are several types of content that you can create and that you should know about.

Customer reviews are also very valuable content. Most people hire service businesses after reading good peer reviews – either on review sites like Yelp, or on your own site. There is now software available that allows your customers to post reviews about your services directly to your website. People listen to good reviews. If you can get them, use them.

Then there’s blog content. The difference between website content and blog content is that website content is more or less static. Once you’ve published your website and added all your products and/or services, your site basically remains the same, only changing when you list new services/hours or add new product. The only problem is that Google likes websites which have fresh (new) content. Enter the blog. The blog is your chance to add fresh content on a regular basis, showing Google that your content is “fresh” and updated regularly. Google wants to show its users the latest, freshest content. Regularly publishing new content on a blog is a very important way to attract the attention of Google. The blog is such an important part of your content publishing that we will devote a separate post specifically to blog creation and publishing.

Several Ways of Creating Custom Content

When it comes to the actual content, you have several choices. First, there’s the good old print article. Include a good title and the keywords for that subject in the headers and in the body of the copy.

Then there are pictures. Pictures are a very effective way of communicating a message. You can join several pictures together into a mini-movie (called an animated gif), and tell your story that way.

Then there’s the infographic. Infofgraphics combine the power of words and visuals. You can buy templates that help you get started with infographics if you’re not an artist.

Then there’s video. Video is becoming the number one way of reaching the Internet audience today. Youtube gets billions of downloads and uploads every day. People love to watch people doing difficult technical work – especially while using cool machines and tools. If you ’re a plumber, take along a video camera whenever you replace a sewer using trenchless technology, or you are using a hydrojetter to clear a sewer line. Put these videos on your website and on a channel that you set up on YouTube. People love watching competent professionals do that incredibly complicated work with all that fancy gear. And at the same time, you are showing that you have the technicians, the training, and the equipment to perform these complex tasks for your customers. It gives you credibility. It gives you authenticity.

Then, of course, there’s good old audio. You, or any good speaker on your staff or that you hire, can record audio segments that can be submitted to podcasts for people to download and listen to later – say, at the gym. Audio gives you a good chance to speak to your customer or prospective customer while you have their undivided attention.

Creating Custom Content – How Will People See It?

Well, the visitors to your site will be able to see your content. But that’s not enough eyeballs – you have to use your content to bring new customers to your website. And that’s where social media comes in. Whenever you publish a new blog post, a new white paper, release new research, or publish any new content, you can get millions of people to see it if you promote it on social media. Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram – each a little different – and alert people to your newly-published content and bring them to your site. Use www.bitly.com to track where your visitors are coming from. New research shows that companies who published a blog post 16+ times a month received 4.5 times as many new leads as companies that posted fewer than 16 blogs per month. Social media is such an important part of content publishing that we will be devoting an entire post specifically addressing the major issues involved in successful content marketing through social media.

There are many other places on the Internet where you can publish informative information to attract new visitors to your website. Publish your articles on EzineArticles, Manta, or Medium. Make sure to place a link in those articles back to a relevant page on your website. Be careful not to sound spammy. Good articles will bring you new business – a bad article or a blatant sales pitch on a public site will not get you anywhere – except maybe banned.

So start authoring and publishing your great content, and bring visitors to your site who will then call you. If you can’t write, hire a writer, or hire an agency – it all depends on your budget. If you publish dynamic content, you will get the business.

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